Single component white light electroluminescent materials and devices

On account of the advantages of organic electroluminescent materials relative to their inorganic counterparts, the development of organic electroluminescent materials is one of the forefronts and hot areas of the optoelectronic information materials. White organic light-emitting devices (WOLEDs) have attracted much interest because of their good potential for various lighting applications. An ideal white emission should be composed of the three primary colors (blue, green, and red) and cover the whole visible range from 400 to 700 nm. Most of the WOLEDs reported so far have relied solely on the use of a combination of several organic components that emit different colors of light to fully span the entire visible spectrum. Due to their advantages of ease of fabrication and low-cost processing, the single component white light electroluminescent materials is to date highly sought after owing to potential applications in (i) light-emitting diodes (LEDs), replacements for current illumination devices such as incandescent bulbs and fluorescent lamps, (ii) flat panel displays (FPDs), as the next generation display devices after liquid crystal displays (LCDs), and (iii) electronic paper displays (E-PADs), as an electronic analogue of paper, etc. The present review summarizes and analyzes the progress made about the single component white light electroluminescent materials and devices at home and abroad in the past few years. Some issues to be addressed and hotspots to be further investigated are also put forward and discussed.